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"The Devoted Friend" by Oscar Wilde & "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain

There are a number of well-known themes in classic literature: love, power and corruption, nature versus machine, and on and on. Today’s stories touch upon a lesser acknowledged theme with universal recognition: sometimes, life just isn’t fair.

Oscar Wilde was criticized for creating fairy tales that were too mature for children, perhaps by those forgetting that Grimms’ Fairy Tales were very grim indeed. In “Devoted Friend,” a tragic tale of a one-sided friendship, Wilde takes umbrage with do-gooders who find no exhaustion to their superfluous, destructive virtue. (He manages to take a few swipes at the literary scene and literary critics along the way.) The abuse suffered in this story by the ever-humble Little Hans is sure to remind all of us of the value of skepticism!

Speaking of skepticism, Mark Twain delivers a deeply cynical take in his folksy tale about a compulsive competitive bet-maker, Jim Smiley, and his over-educated frog. You won’t really know who to root for in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” except, perhaps, Twain himself, who went on to produce his first book after the popularity of this story.

These two brief tales make for an entertaining pair. (This was also my first attempt at a drawl, so be kind! I’ll get better with time.) Please enjoy…

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